"Have you any earrings just like those you are wearing?" I asked her.
If she had, I would buy them if I could for my cousin Viola, I thought. Viola was excessively fair, and those blue stones would be enchanting against her blonde hair.
"You want to buy them?" she said quickly. "I have a pair here just like, only green. Buy those."
"No," I said. "It is the colour I like. Do you want to sell these blue ones you are wearing?"
"No," she said quickly; "not these," and ran to a small mirror on the wall and looked in hastily, fearfully, as if she thought that by wishing for them I could charm them away from her out of her very ears.
That she appreciated so well the effect of the colour harmony between the blue stones and her own cream-hued skin, and the value of it in setting off her beauty, pleased me. It seemed to augur well for her artistic sense.
"May I sit down here?" I asked her, going to the pile of scarlet rugs and cushions in the corner.
"Oh yes, Meester Treevor, sit down," and she came hastily forward to rearrange them for me with Oriental politeness. I sat down, drawing up my legs as I best could, and pointed to a place beside me.
"Come and sit down, Suzee," I said; "I have something to show you now."
She came and sat beside me, but not very close, with her knees raised and her smooth lissom little hands clasped round them. Her almond eyes grew almost round with curiosity. I had brought with me a small portfolio of some of my sketches with the object of introducing the subject of her posing for me. I opened it and drew out the topmost sketch. It was the figure of a young Italian girl lying on a green bank beneath some vines. She was not wholly undraped, but most of her attire was on the bank beside her, and the rest was of a transparent gauzy nature suited to the heat suggested in the sunlit picture.
The moment Suzee"s eyes fell upon it she gave a shriek of dismay and covered her face with her hands. Over any portion I could still see of it spread the Eastern"s equivalent of a blush: a sort of dull heavy red that seems to thicken the tissues.
"What is the matter?" I asked, surveying her in surprise. There was nothing in the picture which would cause the least embarra.s.sment to any English girl.
"Oh, Treevor, it is dreadful to look at things like that," she exclaimed, moving her fingers before her face and looking at me with one eye through them. Then she made some rapid pa.s.ses over her head, as if to ward off the evil spirits I had conjured up.
I laughed.
"You may think so, Suzee," I said; "but in our country, and many others, these "things," as you call them, are not only very much looked at, but also admired, and bought and sold for great sums. What do you see so very bad in it?"
Suzee ventured to peer through her fingers with both eyes at the fearful object.
"Dreadful!" she exclaimed again, quickly shutting her fingers. "It is a very bad woman, is it not?"
"No," I said, somewhat nettled; "certainly not. This was quite a respectable girl. I have quant.i.ties of these portraits and sketches.
Look here," and I opened the portfolio and spread out several pictures on the rug.
Suzee drew herself together, tightly pursed up her and looked down at them with alarm,--as if I had let loose a number of snakes.
"They are very, very wicked things," she said, primly as a dissenting minister"s wife; and lowered her eyelids till the lashes lay like black silk on the cheeks.
I gathered the offending sketches together and pushed them back under cover.
"I wanted you to pose for me," I said, "that I might have your picture, too; but I expect you won"t do so for me?"
"I! I!" said Suzee, with virtuous indignation, "be put on paper like that? I would die first." Her face had thickened all over as the blood went into it. Her eyes looked stormy, alluring.
I leant towards her suddenly as we sat side by side, put my arms round her waist, drew her to me, and pressed my lips on the ridiculous little screwed-up mouth, with a sudden access of pa.s.sion that left her breathless.
"You are a horrid little humbug, and goose, and prude," I said, laughing, as I released her. "What do you think of letting me kiss you like that, then? Is that wrong?"
Suzee sighed heavily, swaying her pliable body only a very little way from me.
"It may be--a little" she admitted; "but it"s not like the pictures."
"Oh! It"s not so bad--not so wicked?" I asked mockingly.
"Oh no, not nearly," she returned decisively.
"Well," I answered, "many people would think it much worse. Those girls who have let me draw them would not let me kiss them--some of them," I added. "So, you see, it"s a matter of opinion and idea. Now, will you say why the picture is so much worse than a kiss?"
"A kiss," murmured Suzee, "is just between two people. It is done, and no one knows. It is gone." She spread out her hands and waved them in the air with an expressive gesture. "Those things remain a monument of shame for ever and ever."
I laughed. I was beginning to see there was not much chance of a picture, but other prospects seemed fair. In life one must always take exactly what it offers, and neither refuse its goods nor ask for more, either in addition or exchange. Sitka would give me something, but perhaps not a picture as I had hoped.
I looked at her in silence for some seconds, musing on her curious beauty.
"I shall call you "Sitkar-i-buccheesh,"" I said after a minute.
Suzee looked frightened and made a rapid pa.s.s over her head.
"What is that?" she asked. "It sounds a devil"s name."
"It only means the gift of Sitka," I answered. "This city has given you to me, has it not? or it will," I added in a lower tone.
I put my arm round her again, and she leant towards me as a flower swayed by the breeze, her head drooped and rested against my shoulder.
"If it were the name of a devil," I said laughing, "it would suit you.
I believe you are an awful little devil."
"All women are devils," returned Suzee placidly.
I did not answer, but Viola"s face swam suddenly before my vision--a face all white and gold and rose and with eyes of celestial blue.
"What would your husband say to all this?" I asked jestingly.
"He will never know. I tell him quite different. He believes everything I say."
Involuntarily I felt a little chill of disgust pa.s.s through me. Deceit of any kind specially repels me, and deceit towards some one trusting, confident, is the worst of all.
Perhaps she read my thoughts instinctively, for she said next, in a pleading note, to enlist my sympathies:
"He is very, very cruel, he beats me all the time."
I looked down at her as she lay in the cradle of my arm, a little sceptical.
From what I knew of the Chinese character it did not seem at all likely that Hop Lee did beat his wife; moreover, the delicate, fragile, untouched beauty of the girl did not allow one to imagine she had suffered, or could suffer much violence.
Again she seemed to feel my doubt of her, for she pushed up suddenly her sleeve with some trouble from one velvet-skinned arm and pushed it up before my eyes. There was a deep dull crimson mark upon it the size of a half-crown.
"Unbeliever! Look at this bruise."